Philip hums and sways, his piercings glinting in the light. "I've done so much more than I ever really thought I might. I saw sunlight. I've been on a beach. I've cuddled living animals. I've eaten fresh fruit and vegetables. Have you seen The Matrix? And on the ships, they have that goop that meets all their nutritional needs? That's what we have. It's mostly made from certain fungi and plants and some other stuff. I'd never seen a living plant, let alone trees, flowers, fruits."

There were things he wanted, but they were so easily fulfilled.

"I grew up knowing that if I was suitable, as an adult, I'd be sent back in a team. Some Historians aren't suitable, they go back and act as general control points, information, touchstones for the other Historians. But I was suitable. The really brave ones? Are the ones who did all this first. One of my team, 0115, he was involved in the first trials in human consciousness transfer. He had never gone back, he was an engineer and important to the studies on how people settle into new bodies, he and his wife. They lived out three life times together, before she died. Temporal aphasia. So he volunteered to go back, do some good in the past. Live a last lifetime somewhere with sunlight and fresh water and private rooms."